Intel approached Nvidia's CEO

Mike Magee, 1st April 2013

It’s an unlikely thing, we know, but we don’t do April Fool’s jokes. Sources at Intel Santa Clara have assured us that the CEO of Nvidia, Jen-Hsen Huang was approached by headhunters seeking for a replacement for Paul Otellini, who stands down at the chip giant at the end of May.

Jen-Hsen, who worked for AMD in a former incarnation, is on record as saying that if he worked for Intel it would only be as the head of the corporation.

Noted for his incredible work ethic, Jen-Hsen built Nvidia up more or less from scratch. But its unclear how far the approaches went – Intel’s head hunters are more or less scrabbling around trying to find the successor for Otellini.

Pat Gelsinger, chief technology officer at EMC, has signalled that he’s not interested in the job. Internal candidates include Dadi Perlmutter.

The future CEO of Intel, whoever she or he is, faces a daunting task. Faced with the fact of convergence and people moving in droves to use smartphones and tablets without any X86 device inside, Intel, basically, needs to be completely re-engineered.